The Park Slopian

Park Slope Brooklyn New York, and iconic things of our time. read the ABOUT section below for a Synopsis, and please SHARE with your PARK SLOPE FRIENDS

Description

This book is dedicated to the people who were brought up and raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, N.Y. during the 60s and 70s. Park Slope was also known as South Brooklyn. The book is filled with so many of the memories of the parents and kids who made the life we shared together as kids while growing up in Park Slope, We lived in a time that will never be repeated again.There has been quite a bit of controversy as to who created, who saved, or who made Park Slope what it was. Well, since this is my book, I will give my opinion: Having grown up there and having hung out and worked on practically every block at one time or another for 30 years, I believe that the hippies did! along the parents and their kids who were living out their lives and growing up. The Hippies moved in and started their art studios, remodeled their houses, and infused the neighborhood with art, music, and culture, and eventually it took over. That was the revitalization and what created the atmosphere of Park Slope. That’s what I grew up around. That’ is what influenced me, as well as thousands of other kids growing up there who were like me.
Once Upon A Time, the yuppies,(No Dis-respect intended) who had priced themselves out of Manhattan drove across the Brooklyn Bridge and found this amazing neighborhood called Park Slope. It was filled with beautiful architecture, music, art, and a smorgasbord of so many cultures. Over the years, the yuppies started to flock there and little by little they priced us out of our own neighborhood. Not only this, but they also replaced the family and neighborhood community values that we had worked to build up over the past thirty years. After they stripped our neighborhood values, they began to strip all the oak baseboard moldings, the old door knobs, and the vintage doors. It broke my heart to get rid of the stuff. I would try to find someone to take it, but by then the last of my generation was already grown and in their 30s. Kids were already being kept inside more and more by progress, computers and play dates. Children couldn’t play out on the street because the cops would get called.
That started happening more in the late 80s and probably peaked in the 2000s. That is progress, but no matter what time did, they can’t buy the memories we had in creating that neighborhood. They will never have the memories that are in this book. This is the closest they will get to growing up in The Real Park Slope, Brooklyn. We created the aura. We created the art. We did it while living and working there for about 30 years – from the 50s through the 80s, we made it an artsy community. We made it cultured. We made it chic. We made Park Slope what it is today. The Yuppies just made it more expensive to live there.
When I started this book, I was talking to myself. Then some friends dropped by and then more friends dropped by. We all began to reminisce about the good old times we had while growing up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. These are not only my memories, but they are also the memories of many of the friends and of people I have met. They are also the memories of my brothers and sisters and their friends, and the memories of our parents. The common ground is that we all shared these memories at the same time and the same place. These were our memories, but they could be your memories too.
If you grew up in Park Slope during this time, you probably also remember and have shared many of the same memories with your families and friends because you were a part of Park Slope too. You probably went to the same stores and attended the same schools as we did. Being an adventurous little boy at the time, I got around the Slope and beyond. In this book, I have tried to include many of the iconic stores and landmarks that we would all remember, so that no matter who you are or where you grew up in the Slope, you will be able to at least remember half of these places or have done half of the things that are contained in this book.
The book is not only about the people who grew up in Park Slope, but it is more about the memories we made together as Park Slopians to make that neighborhood what it is today.
In putting this book together, I have combined stories, memories, and conversations that will not only bring you back to this wonderful place in time when we grew up, but it will also bring you back to a time and place where all the iconic things we remember are no longer around because they have disappeared from the fabric of time and now only live in pictures, collectables, and memories.
In making this book I had to come up with a formula, so it would flow through the years as if you were growing up along with us because you were there – from the doctors who delivered us to our first car! I also had to separate the book into categories that would fit best. I hope you like the job I did. It was great writing this. It rebuilt much of my memory on growing up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, N.Y. as I am sure it will yours. And it’s not so much about the place we grew up, it’s also about a time in history, so that anyone can read this book and just put their names and neighborhoods into the story and relive their childhood growing up also . We were all the last of a generation that participated and remembers most of this great stuff – from street games, some great fads, TV shows, candies, commercials and lots more, it’s just that in this book this took place while growing Up In Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Thank You
ROCKMAN